A handful of Bulgarian officers have been busted accepting Bitcoin bribes for illegally issued passports.

Busted!

A trio of Bulgarian officers was lately arrested for accepting bribes in Bitcoin (BTC) 00 in change for issuing passports to overseas candidates. As reported by native information outlet, Nova, courtroom paperwork point out that Petar Haralampiev, the Head of Bulgarian state company for Bulgarians’ issues overseas, General Secretary Krasimir Tomov, and Mark Stoyov are reported to have concocted 40 pretend paperwork in change for someplace between 5 and 15 bribes per week since “at least” July of 2017.

Apparently, the officers requested €5,000 in Bitcoin from residents of Ukraine, Moldova, and Macedonia and failure to pay would lead to prolonged delays to the issuance of important, time-sensitive paperwork.

Where’s the Proof?

Attorneys representing the officers declare that there’s not enough proof connecting them to the illegally issued paperwork however the prosecution responded by saying “Authorities have confiscated Bitcoin wallets, which prove that some of the bribe money has been converted to cryptocurrency.”

A purple flag was raised when a Ukrainian particular person who has chosen to stay nameless, had a request for paperwork denied, but was rapidly capable of obtain a Bulgarian id after paying a bitcoin bribe. Furthermore, a person serving because the deputy director within the National Agency admitted that he was properly conscious of the operation for months.

Making, promoting and issuing pretend passports have been a profitable enterprise since Bulgaria joined the European Union (EU) in 2007 and the Bulgarian authorities lately detained 20 individuals for promoting the nation’s passport to residents of different Eastern European international locations.

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